With 25 years under its belt, Law & Order: SVU has made television history by being the longest-running police procedural, and in those 25 years, it has gone through many changes, some for the better, some for the worse. But ultimately, the series has stayed just as engaging, prevalent, and important now as it was when it aired back in 1999. That being said, the show likely wouldn’t have the success it does without the addition of its lead characters, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). As the show’s primary partner duo, Benson and Stabler have solved countless crimes and captured the hearts of audiences everywhere. But looking back on the early seasons, it can be startling to see where they began, most notably Stabler. Because the Elliot Stabler we know and love now is not the one we originally started with. In fact, he was kind of awful in the beginning.
Elliot Stabler’s Anger Ruled His Character
There’s no denying that Elliot is an important piece of SVU. This was proven when he left the show ahead of Season 13, leaving a noticeable hole in the series. Now, he makes the occasional guest appearance on the show and is leading his own spin-off, Organized Crime, meaning audiences don’t have to miss out on the Stabler content anymore. But there’s a noticeable difference between the Elliot we know now and the Elliot we first met because in the almost ten years he was gone, Stabler underwent some major character transformation for the better. In the early seasons, Stabler was a jerk more often than not. He was never an inherently bad person, but he had a much more intense and harsh approach to the job than his colleagues, which didn’t always sit right with viewers. The Special Victims Unit requires more compassion than other units due to the subject matter they handle. Cases involving children, the elderly, and sex crimes are among the main topics SVU tackles. So, doing the job requires a certain level of gentleness and understanding, which wasn’t necessarily present when Elliot was in charge.
Elliot is a passionate guy, which bodes well for the job, but that passion often comes out in a brutal fashion. In nearly every episode, he slams a perp against the wall or yells in their faces. And yeah, maybe it’s a scare tactic, and maybe his anger is understandable with the more heinous cases. But it often borders on police brutality, which is an especially hefty topic. To make matters worse, no one in the bureau stops him from doing it. So many times, we swap perspectives to Cragen (Dann Floreck), who wonders aloud if Elliot is going too far in his interrogation approach but never seems in much of a rush to stop him, and neither does anyone else. If you rewatch the series, it would be easy to pinpoint all of the moments Elliot probably should have been written up or sent home. It’s easy to get frustrated and even a little carried away every once in a while when trying to get justice for a victim, but with Elliot, it wasn’t a once-in-a-while issue. It was pretty much every time.
But perhaps the most puzzling part of Stabler’s character was just how often he suggested that the victim was lying about what happened to them, which in the Special Victims Unit is a pretty bold accusation to make. He’s always the first to suggest that the victim is simply looking for attention and sympathy and not actually harmed, and though there have been episodes where he was right, it’s still a pretty damaging suggestion. And he’s often proven wrong. There’s a very stark difference in his approach to the job and that of his colleagues, especially Olivia. And maybe that’s why they work so well as partners, but it also paints Stabler in an especially bad light in comparison.
Elliot Stabler is a Complicated Character
To call out Stabler for all his wrongs without acknowledging his personal history is a bit unfair. A lot of Olivia’s affection for the job and the victims comes from her upbringing, as her mother was raped, resulting in her pregnancy with Olivia. Her upbringing allowed Olivia to see things through the victim’s eyes and thus do anything she can to help them. In Elliot’s case, a lot of his anger and gruff approach to the job stems from the fact that he is a father and that many cases he deals with happen to be children. He’s shared countless times throughout the show that certain cases hit him differently because he can only imagine what he would do if it were his child who was the victim. It’s not an excuse, but it does offer a bit of insight into how he acts some of the time, as some cases get especially under his skin.
The moments that we see Elliot let his guard down help to offer more insight into who he is as a character. A lot of Elliot’s anger seems to be hereditary, as we learn that his father was a crooked cop and not the kindest man, being both physically and emotionally abusive to Elliot as he was growing up. So Elliot tends to carry a lot of that childhood trauma with him, and it often comes through on the job, whether he means for it to happen or not. And he was so against talking to anyone about his problems, which only allowed that anger to fester and deepen to the point that it just overflowed. It wasn’t until his return in Season 22 that we truly saw a new and improved side of Stabler.
Elliot Stabler Has the Best Character Development on ‘Law & Order: SVU’
In the Season 13 premiere, Cragen informs Olivia that Elliot handed in his papers and would not be returning, devastating not only her but fans everywhere. But as hard as it was to adjust to a Stabler-less SVU, the time away allowed for a more well-rounded and level-headed Stabler to grow. Stabler was never a bad person, but his anger issues tended to outshine his good moments and left us with a harsh and hardened man who didn’t seem all that fun to be around. His return in Season 22 and his arc in Organized Crime allowed the show to better explore him as a character and to rectify the things that have constantly plagued him throughout his life. And a lot of this development stems, unfortunately, from the death of his wife, Kathy (Isabel Gillies).
When Kathy dies in a car bombing in Season 22, Elliot is forced to confront his grief and anger surrounding her death. He seeks out revenge, and he desperately searches to take down the person who took his wife’s life. As devastating a storyline as it is to watch, it did allow Stabler to come to terms with some of his demons and work to heal from them. Suddenly becoming the only parent to their five children, Elliot makes the effort to be more present in his children’s lives to help them navigate the loss of their mother. He reconnects with his mother and works on repairing their relationship while he still can. Another big turning point for Elliot is in Organized Crime when he learns from Cragen that his father wasn’t quite the hero he thought he was and was actually a crooked cop, despite earning a Medal of Honor for his service. When Elliot is awarded the same honor, he questions whether he truly deserves it and re-evaluates his entire time on the job. In an attempt to rewrite history and right his father’s wrongs, Elliot makes it his mission to uphold the integrity and justice of the job with the respect and care his father never had.
It’s a turning point that Stabler needed, and though he still has his moments where he’s less than stellar, there is a huge difference in his character in SVU’s early seasons to where he is now. He’s a better father, a better friend, a better partner, and an all-around better cop. Though the focus of the show is the crimes and cases that the team investigates and brings to justice, Elliot’s character development is right up there with one of the best arcs the series has portrayed. Organized Crime, especially, has dug into Elliot’s roots and psyche, giving us a more nuanced look into such a misunderstood and complicated character.
